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[Review] LIVING WITH THE DEAD by Kelley Armstrong

[This is the nineth in a series of posts counting down to the last in Kelley Armstrong’s Otherworld series, THIRTEEN, set for release July 24, 2012. ~~ 1.BITTEN; 2. STOLEN; 3. DIME STORE MAGIC; 4. INDUSTRIAL MAGIC; 5. HAUNTED; 6. BROKEN; 7. NO HUMANS INVOLVED; 8. PERSONAL DEMON; ]Cover Copy: Robyn Peltier’s life is just about as normal as it can get– until she moves to L.A. for a fresh start as an A-list publicist and her celebutante client is gunned down at a nightclub. Normal is a thing of the past as she is suddenly the prime suspect in a murder investigation and an unwilling participant in a grisly supernatural turf war. (As if it wasn’t hard enough dealing with Hollywood tabloids!) Robyn’s best friend, half-demon tabloid reporter Hope Adams, and her mysterious boyfriend, Karl, are determined to clear Robyn’s name with the help of a homicide detective with an uncanny affinity for the dead, and a very persistent ghost.

Soon Robyn finds herself at the heart of a world she never knew existed– one she was safe knowing nothing about . . .

My Thoughts: LIVING WITH THE DEAD is the nineth book in the Women of the Otherworld series. In this story, Hope and Karl are back and working to help Hope’s best friend, Robyn.

Robyn has just moved to L.A., when she suddenly finds she’s the prime suspect in a murder investigation of a celebrity and an unwilling participant in a grisly supernatural turf war between two cabals. Robyn, being human, had no idea this Otherworld existed, and already had enough on her plate with trying to get over the death of her husband.

Hope takes a temporary assignment for a tabloid in L.A. so she can help Robyn. In the course of doing so, she has to come to terms with her demon side.

The killers are from a kumpania of clairvoyents, a new race for the Otherworld series. The detective on the case is John Findlay, aka Finn, a necromancer. Although he can see dead people, Finn has had no knowledge of the Otherworld and the other races. One of the dead he sees while working this case is Robyn’s recently deceased husband.

Armstrong is adept at weaving action-packed plots with complex characters. I love that Karl the werewolf is a jewel theif and doesn’t want to give that up– and Hope is okay with that. In fact, the entire Otherworld series is much the same: flawed characters that are accepted by their other halfs just the way they are. In LIVING WITH THE DEAD, Robyn is moving through the greiving process, and Armstrong pulls her through it in a very natural, very real way. Even the antagonists are not simple. They don’t want to kill just to kill. Their motivations are very well done.

Like most of the series, LIVING WITH THE DEAD can be read as a standalone.

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Guide to Review Ratings

A Reviews - Loved it! Would buy it in hardcover!
B Reviews - Liked it. Might even check out more by the author or the next in the series.
C Reviews - Either this book needs a substantial makeover, or I'm really not the right audience for it.
DNF - Did Not Finish